/m/negro_leagues

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I was at a SABR regional about 25 years ago where several members of the Negro League Philadelphia Stars appeared. They mentioned that Ray Dandridge was bowlegged. "You could get anything through those legs," one of them recalled, "but a ball."

On the other hand, if we do it now, we can get some votes from people who actually saw the guys play, whereas if we wait too much longer, not so much.

Might already be too late to go by much more than myth and legend. To have seen even the last years of the pre-integration Negro League as an adult with some perspective would put you into your 90s. Not that many around, and some might not recall quite everything they once knew. Which is not to say that the Museum shouldn't make the effort anyhow.

The clip linked to in #1 is amazing. I've seen footage of the Gashouse Gang Cardinals doing similar "magician" tricks with the ball, but I have to admit, the Clowns are MUCH better at it, running variations that the Cards had never thought of. Other interesting things: Tatum apparently played 1B, threw righty, but hit lefty, or was a switch-hitter. The gloves are, for the time period, enormous, much bigger than I remember gloves being a decade later, when I was a kid. No idea why. The Clowns filmed are all VERY thin. I wonder if that was a general characteristic of NgL players - I know it was not characteristic of Oscar Charleston or Josh Gibson, but these guys all look like they need a good meal more than a ballgame. Except, of course, that they are burning energy at a fantastic rate, and obviously are not starving. - Brock Hanke